Competing Smarter

President Obama visited Indiana on August 5, to announce $2.4 billion in high-tech federal grants. It turns out that $400 million is going to six different Indiana companies, the second-largest amount doled out among 25 states. Three of these grant recipients are located in the Indianapolis Region.

There are plenty of high-tech stories to tell relating to clean-technology, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing operations in the 10-county Indianapolis Region, which is the focus of the grants. And while each individual story is newsworthy, it’s “the sum of the parts” that communicate a compelling message to the rest of the nation and the world.

That message is that Indiana has a great deal of activity going on in major growth industries – namely hybrid-electric cars, lithium-ion batteries, and other components for electric cars and “heavy hybrid” work vehicles.

I spoke with Indy Partnership President and CEO Ron Gifford about the grants this morning and he said it’s fitting that President Obama traveled to Indiana for the announcement because “we’re for real.” Not that other regions and other states don’t have quality projects underway, but few have the advantages that we’re experiencing in the Indianapolis Region.

For example, the electric car was invented in the Indianapolis Region and several of the original GM engineers who worked on the EV1 are now leading hybrid-electric car companies and suppliers making headlines here. The region’s strengths in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing are already nationally recognized as well as our strong competitive position in transportation distribution and logistics. Together with leading research universities and other post-secondary institutions (six of which just received clean-technology stimulus grants of their own) and a trained, available advanced-manufacturing workforce, the Indianapolis Region is “for real.”